Cola

Sounds pretty exciting to me. Not fun or advisable, but exciting nonetheless.

Would you value a blade that was used to execute prisoners during WWII? I sure don't. I can appreciate weapons of war used to wage war, but I don't like tools used for war crimes. Obviously with old swords, you never know, which may be for the better; war crimes weren't invented in the 20th century.

If he was wearing it at the time, my guess would be dead as a doornail. But also the calibre seems very large, a musket ball perhaps?

Thanks for explaining that's been bugging me for a while! Are "noble" and "dignified" just two different translations of the same Japanese term?

For some reason I read "dignified sugata" a lot. Does anyone know what makes a sugata dignified versus the opposite (undignified? not dignified?).

Looks a bit too much like a kitchen knife for my taste.

Looks great, but one question: Did you purposely put the menuki on the wrong end of the tsuka?

That is correct! Spoilers: I think those are the two phrases from the top, as they sort of match what is on the papers and the nakago. No clue what the two phrases in between those and the signature say.

Sure! Is this clear enough to make a guess?

Yes, I read about the fakes, it seems all the examples in this topic all have some differences so it's very hard to tell I think.

Apologies for gravedigging an old topic, but am I correct in reading this as a signature by Kanzan Sato?

I read the Connoisseurs book, and I was wondering, has someone ever made a table to summarize this? Ie. one column for each of the schools and a characteristic (Nie vs nioi, Hamon shape, Hada etc.) in every row.

I don't get the notion that it would be a burden to your loved ones to inherit your collection. I love all the weird things my dad and (great?)grandparents collected, even if I didn't get to know some of them. The idea that they thought it worthwhile to get and preserve those things, and I get to wonder why is the closest connection I have to some of my grandparents. I guess the only problem with nihonto is the maintenance, so I guess accompanying the collection with a letter and some obligatory reading would help. Worst case scenario they pawn everything off and have a party, but then at least I tried.

Interesting philosophical question aside from "what is a good sword?" we now moved to "what is a good collection?". Is it wrong to collect from all over the place? What's wrong with collecting diversity, rather than everything from one area or period? Perhaps most importantly, for whom are you building a collection; are you trying to impress someone, or do you want to sell the lot for a profit? Or do you want something you enjoy yourself?

ah, yeah they didn't specify, just 80K yen in addition to the listed price to get it shipped.